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Alabama still won't release scores for non-failing schools

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This is a sample of the scores Alabama releases for failing schools. Null means the score was not in the bottom 6 percent that year. Comparable data is not available for non-failing schools. (Image from Alabama Department of Education reports)

Pursuant to the AAA law, the programmers were only looking for the bottom 6% and only received information on the bottom 6%.

The Alabama Department of Education will not release accountability
scores nor the rankings for the state's public schools.

The GOP majority in the Alabama Legislature last year passed
the Alabama Accountability Act, ordering education officials to identify so-called
failing schools.

To do that, the law required the state to rank all public
schools according to combined performance in reading and math. The state must hunt for schools that repeatedly land in the bottom 6 percent.

But the state last year denied public records requests from
AL.com for scores of schools in the top 94 percent. The state turned down
a formal request from Huntsville City Schools.

"I'm still curious. I haven't changed my position on that,"
said Laurie McCaulley, a member of the Huntsville school board, this week. "How can you
determine the bottom 6 percent without ranking the top 94 percent?"

Last week the state issued a new list of 76 failing schools, and once again declined to provide comparable data for
non-failing schools.

In short, the state said the scores for non-failing schools were not created and therefore can't be provided.

Here's the full response from the Alabama Department of
Education:

"The bottom 6% - the schools identified on the state
legislator's criteria for "failing schools" – were queried by computer. The
programmers who input the query used to make that determination did not design
the program to identify and rank all schools in Alabama.

Pursuant to the AAA law, the programmers were only looking
for the bottom 6% and only received information on the bottom 6%.

Of the bottom 6%, no school is identified as being first or
last on the list – there is no ranking. They are all randomly in the bottom 6%."

The ranking system marked
a new turn in Alabama education and forced officials to boil down a large pool of
test data into one single number for each school.

By law, those schools that finish in the bottom 6 percent at least three times over six years are labeled as failing. Students are given options to request transfers or use state tax credits to attend private school.

The state releases the single "score" for each
failing school, even for years when they weren't in the bottom 6 percent. For instance, Greene County High got a 72 last
spring, which is not failing. The school got a 58 the year before, which was in the bottom 6 percent.

But school officials in Huntsville argued that educators
can't see the margin between the failing and the non-failing. Was
a school cutting it close? Which schools need attention to avoid slipping? Who has two years in the bottom 6 percent and is at risk during the next round of testing?

David Blair, president of the Huntsville board, said on
Tuesday that he didn't expect that Huntsville would make another records request.
"At this moment, we're not going to pursue the matter."

Alabama State Superintendent Tommy Bice

State education officials have said they do not
support the new ranking system. For one thing, the state now combines average scores across two subjects across three separate tests that were not designed to be averaged. For more on the formula, click here.

Education officials have pointed out that the underlying test results in math and reading are available online for all schools. The accountability scores and rankings are not.

For a look at the demographic data for Alabama's new list of failing schools, click here.